g
the judgments of God upon the heathen,--they then represent the Messiah
as Him who shall make a great separation among the Covenant-people
themselves, and who shall be a consolation to the godly, while He
brings inexorable judgments upon the wicked when they have to do with
those who mourn in Zion, who through the inflicted judgments of the
Lord have been brought to a deep sorrow on account of their sins,--they
then represent the Messiah as Him who shall one day take away the sins
of the land, who is to bear their griefs and carry their sorrows. Now,
as canonical prophecy extends over several centuries, during which
circumstances, wants, and dispositions the most diverse, must have
taken place, and as the Messianic prophecy is in harmony with these, it
displayed, more and more fully, its riches, and did so in a manner far
more effective and vivid than it could possibly have [Pg 164] done had
it been proclaimed in the form of a discussion or treatise. As the
Messiah was thus represented from the most various points of view, and
in the way of direct perception, and divine confidence,--as He was thus
everywhere pointed out as the end of the development. He could not but
become more and more the soul of the nation's life.

In the Messianic announcements by the prophets, no such gradual
progress in clearness and distinctness can be traced, as in those of
the Pentateuch. The assertion that there existed with them at first,
only a general hope of better times, unconnected with any person, rests
on the unfounded hypothesis that Joel is the oldest among all the
prophets,--and at the same time on the erroneous assumption that he was
ignorant of a personal Messiah,--and, _further_, on the incorrect
supposition that the prophets, who write only what presents itself
immediately to their view, have not in their creed all that they omit
to say. It is, _moreover_, opposed by the prospect of a personal
Messiah held out in the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Song of
Solomon. How very slender is the ground for inferring that, because
many essential points are not touched upon by Hosea, Joel, and Amos,
they, therefore, did not know them, is shown by the fact that neither
do several among the later prophets--as Jeremiah and Ezekiel--touch
upon them, although the previous more distinct prophecies of Isaiah
were certainly known and acknowledged by them. We must never forget
that it is from above that each of the prophets received his share